Twenty Grand

Twenty Grand

Dani Woody woke with a start to discover a strange man sitting in a chair next to her bed. She distinctly remembered setting the security system before going to bed, a system she herself had designed.

“Good morning,” he said coolly, as he ate an apple that he must have stolen from her fruit basket. She had to admit that he wasn’t unattractive. He certainly didn’t seem threatening.

“Who are you and what are doing here?” She asked.

“You know my name. You used it last night when you hacked into my account and stole twenty grand from me.”

Dani tried to remain calm as she sat up in bed. She had always known there was a chance, if only a small chance, that her hacking career was going to get her into trouble one day.

With the speed of a cobra the man was on the floor. He grabbed her bed frame and yanked it toward him. A fraction of a second later a bullet crashed through the window and into the wall where her head had just been. Dani screamed and ducked, placing herself as low to the mattress as she could.

The man picked up the side of the bed and dumped her out of it onto the floor, leaving the bed standing on its side, sheltering her from the window. He then jumped over it to join her just as a hail of bullets rained into the room, pelting the mattress and destroying everything in sight.

Dani screamed! She had given up all pretense of playing it cool. She was now officially terrified. The man pushed the upturned bed toward the window. This revealed a trap door in the floor that he promptly opened.

“How did you know about that?” Dani asked in astonishment. “Who are you?”

“Tom Whiteside,” he said, gesturing to her that she should escape through the trap door. They both hurried through the opening and Whiteside closed it behind him as the sound of gunfire was starting to let up.

Below the floor was a steel staircase that led down to the basement of the building. Dani was terrified. She didn’t know what to think. Was this Tom Whiteside trying to kill her? If he was then why didn’t he just let her get shot in her bed? And who was that shooting at her anyway?

“Who was that trying to kill me?” she asked, as they reached the bottom of the stairs. They walked through a doorway and out to a loading dock where a laundry service truck was parked.

“They weren’t trying to kill you they’re after me,” Whiteside told her, “Of course now they’ll want you dead too.”

“But who are they? Why do they want you dead?”

A side door opened suddenly in front of them and a man in dark clothes came rushing through it. He held a gun and raised it to fire.

Before the trigger could be pulled Whiteside grabbed the man’s wrist with both hands and wrenched it back toward the gunman. He fired twice and the man fell dead.

“Some people I used to work for,” Whiteside said, as calmly as if killing someone was an everyday occurrence. “For a while I was dead. For a long time. And trying to remain that way. I knew they were monitoring all my accounts. That’s why I left them alone. Once you took that twenty grand it reactivated that account and they would have been notified. Then they found you the same way I did.”

Whiteside ushered Dani toward the laundry truck that was parked at the loading dock. He grabbed the door handle just as another man in black came around the front of the vehicle. Whiteside slammed the door into the gunman’s face. This startled him causing him to drop his gun. Before he could retrieve it, Whiteside hit him in the face with a spinning back kick. The man flew backward onto the ground but was back on his feet in a second. He jumped toward his fallen gun but Whiteside got there first. Just as the man grabbed his gun Whiteside stomped on his hand. Dani thought she could hear bones breaking. She was shocked by how quickly the gunman got back to his feet and came running after Whiteside.

Whiteside caught the force of his charging assailant full on and fell backward. But as he did so, he held tight to his attacker, pulling him along with him. As Whiteside fell, he brought his feet up under the other man. Rolling backward, he shoved upward with both feet, causing the gunman to fly over the top of him and onto the concrete floor of the loading area.

Dani was terrified as both men jumped to their feet with impressive speed. The gunman reached into his boot and drew out a knife. Whiteside assumed a defensive stance preparing to meet this new threat. The gunman swung the knife and Whiteside dodged it. Another attempt also failed. When the gunman lunged Whiteside saw his chance. He stepped outside the gunman’s out stretched arm. Then grabbed the arm at both the wrist and the elbow. The gunman struggled but Whiteside drove his own elbow into the man’s nose, stunning him. In the next instant, Whiteside forced the man’s wrist backward, then bent the elbow. This allowed him to drive the gunman’s own knife into his throat.

Dani screamed at the horror of what she had just witnessed. But before she could go into shock Whiteside ushered her into the truck. He started it and drove out of the loading area and onto the street, all the while watching for any other attackers.

“Why don’t you look in the back and see if there’s something you can change into?” Whiteside told her.

Dani looked down as if noticing for the first time that she was still in her pajamas. For a second she sat frozen in the passenger seat of the laundry truck. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry or scream. In less than ten minutes she had had a strange man break into her loft, had no less than three attempts on her life, and she was now riding in a stolen laundry truck with some man she didn’t even know. All she knew of him was his name, if Tom Whiteside was even his real name. Not knowing what else to do she took his advice and looked at what was available to wear.

Her first thought was that absolutely nothing was suitable for her to wear. She quickly accepted the fact that her options were limited. She could don some industrial clothes and try to look somewhat inconspicuous, or she could remain in her pajamas and stand out on the street like a sore thumb. She chose a blue jumpsuit that looked like it might almost fit her. Stepping into it she almost lost her footing as the truck stopped suddenly. Zipping up quickly, she peered out through the windshield and saw that they were in an alley. She could hear police sirens in the distance.

“Come on,” Whiteside told her.

She followed him out of the truck and down the alley. “Where are we going?” she asked.

“Away from here. Away from the truck.”

She followed obediently, not really understanding why. Was she being kidnapped? Would he kill her? She thought that option unlikely since he could have done so in her loft. For that matter he could have just let her be killed by whoever was doing all that shooting. Why was she still alive?

As they walked past what Dani assumed was a warehouse of some sort, Whiteside tried the door. It was locked. He tried another one. It opened. He ushered her in, then followed her after checking to see that no one was following them. They walked quickly through the building which seemed fairly empty. Dani could hear noises, as if someone was in the building, but she saw no one.

They reached the other side of the building and exited onto the street. Across the street was a busy farmers market. Whiteside lead them in that direction.

“What are we doing?” Dani asked.

“We’re looking normal. Keep walking.”

She looked at her clothing and decided that she looked anything but normal at that moment. Passing through the market and out to the street on the other side, they found a couple of taxis parked at the curb waiting to pick up a fare. Dani was surprised that taxis still existed in this modern era of rideshares. They got into the nearest cab and Whiteside gave the driver an address.

As the car pulled into the traffic Dani tried to gather her thoughts. She had no idea how to even talk to this man. She finally decided that a direct approach was her only option.

“Why am I still alive?” she asked.

Whiteside looked at her as if he didn’t understand the question.

“Why am I still alive?” she asked again. “Why have you saved my life three times when you could have just let me die?”

“I need a favor,” he told her.

“A favor?”

“Yes. A big favor. I need someone with your skills. You owe me that much. You do this for me and you can keep the twenty grand.”

Dani was getting a little scared. What favor could this man need that was worth that much? “What’s the favor?” she asked.

Whiteside reached into his back pocket and produced a black notebook. He handed it to her. It had what looked like a leather cover and it had one of those ribbon place keepers.

“In there is all the information you’ll need. I want you to help me find my daughter,” he told her.

Dani was shocked. In a matter of hours he had not only been able to find out where she lived but also figured out how to get past her security system, and knew about the trap door in her floor. What else could he know about her? How could he possibly need help from her?

Whiteside seemed to read her thoughts. “More than 20 years ago,” he told her, “A child was born. Before I even knew of her existence she was put up for adoption. That much I know. The problem is that adoption records are sealed by court order. But those records are on computers. That’s where you come in.”

“You want me to hack into court computers?” she asked.

“Yeah. I trust you don’t have a problem with that. It’s not like you’re stealing anything,” he said.

“Have you thought this through?” She asked. “What if she doesn’t want to be found?”

“I’m not looking to force my way into her life. But if she wants to know me, to have a relationship with me, then she deserves to at least know who I am and how to contact me.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Dani said as the cab pulled up to a curb and stopped. “How will I get in touch with you?”

“I’ll find you,” Whiteside said, smiling. He got out of the car and it pulled away. She looked back for one last look but he had disappeared in the crowd of traffic and people.